Finding Myself – Being Who I'm Meant to Be

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Happiness

When I’m asked what is my life’s passion. I come up empty. I know I want to live a full life on my own terms. I know that I’d rather be poor than to ever give up my freedom of choice again. I know that I want to travel the world. However I don’t know that I’d categorize any of these things as passions.

It’s been said follow your passion and you’ll be happy. Does that mean if you do not have a passion or haven’t identified your passion you are not happy? What is happy? Or should I ask what is happiness? I don’t believe happiness is something you find. I think you either have it or you don’t. You are either happy or you are not. It’s a choice really. You can choose to be happy. There is no one thing or things that you acquire, or one place that you get to that brings happiness.

I’ve noticed that people with the mindset of “as soon as I do this that or the other I’ll be happy” or “as soon as I accomplish this goal or the other I’ll be happy” never seem to quite grasp happiness. The people who are already happy where they are, seem to be happy no matter what.

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8 thoughts on “Happiness”

thanks for this entry, Paula. You strike me, always have, as an unusually luminous person, spreading light and reason with every post and comment. I admire this about you, tremendously, keep you in the back of my head as one of the best examples of how I want to be. Recently, when working on ‘Feng Shui-ing’ my house, I got to the area that is said to represent Career. O God, I thought, what IS my career?? What do I hang here to show this, when I am not sure? Instantly it came to me: to shine light and hope and love as often as I can, create opening for that whenever possible. So, I found a metal figure, a copy of an ancient indigenous local petroglyph, that depicts a human, glowing like the sun, beaming Light and all that is that sacred love energy. You are this person, to me. Thank you.

Sarah,
It is interesting that you’d say that because this is exactly how I see you. I’m totally surprised that you see that in me. I’ve thought this of you ever since we “met” on Live Spaces. There is a light that emanates from you. You have brought me through more than you know. I have grown a lot since those days and that’s thanks in part to you, Steve, Kathy, and Joelle.

I agree completely! Happiness is a choice that comes from within. For me, happiness is close friends with gratitude. I find that when I am unhappy or wanting, it’s usually because I’m not having much gratitude for all the amazing things in my life. My mom always says, “when you lose your gratitude, you get an attitude”- so true!

Paula, I have been thinking about the concept of happiness myself as of late. What I have actually been thinking or more specifically is “embracing the moment”. You touched on this in your original posting. I also hear people discussing decision to attend a particular event or function that is in conflict with at least one other thing on their calendar. They will choose to make an appearance at both events in the sense that they would just like to “make and appearance” or to “show their faces”. Then they are on to the next. In my humble opinion, that behavior is the perfect recipe to find yourself unfulfilled and thereby contributing to your own lack of fulfillment and fleeting sense of happiness. So, I have decided for myself that all I have in every moment in my life is “NOW”. When I look at the watch on my arm, I imagine that each number of the face of the dial reads “NOW”. It’s a way of reminding myself to embrace this moment and and each moment in the now and the result should be a happiness construct. Lastly, I love your blog. You’re so introspective. Love Ya!

I really value your opinion Cliff. You have a way with words that I’ll never have, however you seem to understand exactly where I’m coming from. I love your way of looking at life’s moments. Embracing the “NOW” as you’ve stated is how it should be.

Thanks Paula. That means a lot. However, your way of looking at life has enticed and inspired me to look deeper than the superficial. I think it all started with the conversation about being a minimalist. In those moments, I was forever changed. I realized that life is more than the material and if we define ourselves by the material, we will be consumed and truly lose our sense of self. I’ve always said that people lived an entire life and never truly new themselves, because they never knew how and never knew how they became lost to begin with. However, your posts along with other things that have captured my attention have been nothing short of provocative and inspiring. So, your words to me are truly appreciated, because you impact me by being the way that you are in ways “Webster” can’t define. I’m so glad that I met you. Thanks for all that you do for me, but are not always aware. 😉